Dragons and Daydreams
by Mellpen00
Summary: A jumble of one-shots that may contain any genre, but center mostly around family and romance, with a healthy dose of hurt/comfort. No slash, smut, or swears.
1. Falling (in love)

**A/N:** This is just a place I decided to make to put one-shots as they come to mind. They may be few and far between though, my muse is very unreliable... I don't own How to Train Your Dragon or its characters, but I am very grateful _someone's_ muse woke up long enough to come up with them, even if it wasn't mine. Well, please read and review! Enjoy!

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"Astrid, look out!"

Astrid jerked her head to the side just in time to see the net come flying towards her. It wrapped around Stormfly's wings, causing them both to fall like a rock. Astrid managed to disengage herself from the saddle, but what did that help? She was still falling.

"Hiccup!" It was almost a reflex; calling out like that, but as soon as she did, it was a matter of when, not what. In less than two seconds she felt her arms being grabbed by a Night Fury, and as they circled back toward the ship that had attacked them, Toothless looked down at her and Hiccup's muffled voice came from above.

"Are you okay, Astrid?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." And they moved on. Astrid was ready to face what ever met them on that ship. She knew he had her back.

*-o-*-o-*-o-*-o-*-o-*-o-*-o-*-o-*-o-*-o-*-o-*-o-*

Valka watched in horror as the gentle, protective beast she had lived under for twenty years was brutally murdered right before her eyes. And there was nothing she could do. She closed her eyes, but her grief turned to fury as she heard the Challenger bellow out his victory call, summoning all the wild dragons to his command. Valka turned Cloudjumper towards the place she had last seen Drago; he would pay for the pain he had caused.

As she flew in his direction, however, Valka heard Drago shout something and saw him point his staff directly at her. She barely had time to glance back before the Challenger spewed his icy breath right behind her. Valka tried to jerk Cloudjumper out of its path, but she immediately felt an unusual weight hanging from her dragon's tail, making it almost impossible for him to maneuver.

Valka held on as best she could, but, with Cloudjumper doing all he could to simply stay aloft, he couldn't dodge the dragons that were flocking to the new Alpha's call. Valka saw a tail headed straight for her, and there was nothing she could do. The tail hit her square in the chest, knocking her feet off the dragon and making her claw at his scales to keep from falling.

Cloudjumper unintentionally circled back near the Alpha, and it made ready to attack them again. Cloudjumper jerked to the side to avoid the attack, causing one of Valka's hands to lose its grip on his scales. Almost immediately her other hand gave out and she was falling.

Fear gripped her chest. Under normal circumstances, she would have called out for Cloudjumper in a heart-beat, but not this time. She was alone. No one was coming to rescue her.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the ground, coming closer at an alarming rate. Then suddenly, it halted. Something hit her, knocking the breath out of her lungs and wrapping around her. She was still moving, but not downward, sideways. Valka glanced quickly at the face of the person who was saving her and then stopped. Emerald green eyes. She had seen those eyes before, a long time ago, but she had given them up, they didn't belong here. Valka would never have dreamed of calling out _his_ name, she had no right. Yet here he was, swooping in and saving her.

They crashed into the side of the mountain and Stoick reached out his ax to slow them down as they slid down the wall. Valka felt herself being spun out and pulled back in, just like a dance. As she was spun into his arms, even though she knew she had done nothing to deserve it, Valka was the safest she had been in twenty years.

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I hope you liked it! Please review!


	2. Generations

**A/N:** Once again, I don't own HTTYD, or anything for that matter... hm, I should work on that. Anyway, I hope you like it. Please review!

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Astrid didn't know anything could hurt that much. She was pretty sure nothing else _did_ hurt that much, but as she looked at the bundle she held in her arms, she would have done it all again.

The door creaked open and Hiccup poked his head into the room. She gave him a tired smile as he cautiously entered the room. Hiccup nearly tiptoed over to the bed where his wife lay, unsure of what to do. He was overjoyed that Astrid was alright, not to mention his son, _My son. I'll have to get used to that._ but he knew Astrid must be tired, and he didn't want to hurt either of them.

"Don't you want to see him?" Astrid was curious as to her husband's hesitance.

"Uh, yeah," his voice cracked and Astrid smiled. Hiccup sat down on the edge of the bed, then scooted closer and put his arm around Astrid, looking into the tiny wad of blankets she held in her arms. Hiccup's heart stopped as he caught the first glimpse of his son.

He was just perfect. The tiny face with its perfect little nose and perfect little mouth, the little hands with ten flawless little fingers. His head was covered with soft golden down which Hiccup thought was perfect, and Astrid caught her breath as the sleepy little eyes blinked open, revealing a perfect sea of emerald. For that moment, everything stopped. The world stood still as a little boy screwed up his little face into a yawn, blinked, and closed his eyes again.

Hiccup looked over at his shoulder and saw Astrid's head leaning there, her eyes closed too. He smiled to himself and kissed the top of her head, slowly leaning her back so she rested on the pillows. Careful not to wake his sleeping wife and child, which he still held in the crook of his arm, Hiccup unstrapped his metal leg and set it silently on the floor before sliding under the furs on the bed. He shifted closer to Astrid and slid his arm around her again, setting the babe in the nest that was made between them.

Hiccup surveyed his family, taking in every aspect: the way Astrid's hair laid on the pillow, how their son's face moved while he dreamed, the lighting, the smell, the warmth. Taking one last look, Hiccup closed his eyes and laid his head back on the pillow, sending up a silent prayer to thank the gods for what he had been given. He felt Astrid press her lips to his, and he returned her kiss without opening his eyes. As they broke apart Astrid smiled and looked down at the child between them.

"He's perfect." Hiccup said softly.

"Why thank you!" Astrid glanced up at him and gave a cocky smile, "I take pride in my work." She was surprised when Hiccup leaned forward and captured her lips again.

"Thank you." Hiccup said when it had ended. Astrid looked into his eyes and saw their earnestness. She gave him one more short, sweet, kiss and laid her head on  
his shoulder. He rested his head on hers and they both drifted off into peaceful sleep.

* * *

Valka silently opened the door to Hiccup and Astrid's bedchamber and peeked inside. She saw them in the bed, asleep, and smiled to herself. A tear sprang to her eye and she swiftly moved her hand to wipe it away. Now was not the time to remember.

Valka quickly and silently exited the room. Images flashed in her mind, thoughts came unbidden. No. Today was a day of joy! She walked down the hallway but stopped and leaned against the wall. Pictures of another couple long ago showed themselves. A happy couple, laughing, smiling, kissing. Hiccup and Astrid shouldn't be in that room, that bedroom belonged to her and Stoick. They had no right! Valka turned with her back to the wall and shook her head; they had every right.

She saw Stoick's face when he first held Hiccup, she felt his strong arms wrapped around her, his smell, his feel, his taste. Valka slid down the wall, she could do nothing to stem the flow of her tears. She clamped her hands to her mouth, hoping to stifle the sobs that racked her body. His eyes, his hair, his voice; all coming back to her in full force, like a wave breaking on the sand. Only, the wave wasn't breaking, she was. Their friendship, their courtship, their wedding. The first few years they spent together as man and wife, telling him there would be a child, waiting in hope together. Together, together, together. All the days they had, and all the years that never were.

She felt someone kneel down next to her and put his arms around her. She buried her head in his chest and wept. With her head there she smelled him. He almost smelled like… Stoick! Stoick had come with the Valkyries to carry her to Valhalla! But no, this man was not Stoick, he was smaller, weaker, and his smell was not the same. She looked up into her son's face and saw the tears that filled his eyes.

"Mom, I…" she put a finger on his mouth and brushed away the stray tears that spilled from his eyes. His perfect green eyes, just like… Tears threatened to flow again, but Valka steeled herself against them and gave a sad smile for her son.

"This is not your burden, son. It is my own. One I must carry all my days. Someday, maybe, it will grow lighter, but not today. Today you have joy," she put a hand on his face, "and you must _hold on_ to it, son." Her eyes filled again, "And _never_ let it go." An infant's cry came from the room and a sob broke in Valka's chest. "Go," she said. "Don't miss a second!" She embraced her son and sent him off, but before he entered the room he looked back at Valka.

"You're not alone, Mom. Don't ever think you are." She mustered her bravery and gave him a smile, so with a sad look he went into the room. Valka stood and turned back down the hallway.

"Give me courage," she prayed.

 _For you, my dear, anything._


	3. Parasteatoda Tepidariorum

**A/N:** Guess what guys! I'm not dead! Isn't that great! Getting down to business. Thank you for your kind reads, reviews, etc. This particular one-shot is per request of one **Martyn**. Sorry if I didn't get quite what you wanted, but this is what I came up with. So without further ado, Adieu!

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It was another quiet day on the Edge. Maybe quieter than most; all the troublemakers were off wrangling a small pod of Scauldrons that were terrorizing some fishermen. Hiccup was in one of the huts, presumably trying to chart the migration path of a school of fish to help out the industry on Berk. Astrid was soaring over the island, keeping look-out of course, and taking in the smell of the sea air and the feel of the wind in her hair.

She was making her third pass around the perimeter when she spotted an unusual amount of smoke coming from the direction of the main base.

"Come on, Stormfly. Let's check it out." As they approached, Astrid scanned the area for the source of smoke. At length her eyes lighted on a small hut on the outskirts of the settlement. The hut that Hiccup was in had been turned into a blazing torch. Astrid urged Stormfly down to land and jumped off at a run.

Astrid raised her ax and channeled her momentum into the stroke she laid on the door. _THUNK._ Her blade sank into the heavy wood. She pulled her ax out of the gash it had made and raised it for another hit when a sound issued out from the crack in the door: Hiccup was yelling bloody murder.

"Hiccup!" Astrid screamed at the top of her lungs, landing blow after blow on the door until there was a break large enough for her to squeeze through. The heat was nearly unbearable inside and Astrid had to pull the neck of her shirt over her mouth to keep out the smoke.

"Hiccup!" she called, making her way through the house. Suddenly, Astrid heard what sounded like a plasma blast and the house shuddered, causing a burning rafter to dislodge. _CRACK!_ Astrid dove forward just before the beam hit the smoldering floorboards, sending a shower of sparks in every direction. Astrid got to her feet and brushed off some of the sparks. Knowing Toothless was with Hiccup made her feel a little bit better, but the fact that they hadn't gotten out yet concerned her.

Astrid was about to call out again when, through the black smoke, she saw Hiccup up ahead. What was he doing!? The boy and his Night Fury were both perched on a smoldering table, eyes fixed on the floor. Astrid glanced above them, not a second too soon, because just as she did, a roof support right over the table came loose. She lunged for Hiccup, knocking him off the table and causing Toothless to lose his balance. The crash was deafening. The roof support landed on table, easily snapping it in two, while the two humans and dragon smashed into the floor. Before Hiccup could even catch his breath Astrid was pulling him to his feet and half-dragging him towards the back door.

Neither of them knew quite what happened, but half a second later, Astrid and Hiccup found themselves wrapped in black, hurdling toward something they couldn't see. They heard the ear-piercing sound of splintering wood, then felt the dull thud of something large landing on grass.

Toothless opened his wings for Astrid and Hiccup to climb out, and they did so while coughing, trying to get the smoke out of their chests. Hiccup was still trying to rid his lungs of toxin when he felt a solid punch land on his gut, forcing whatever breath he had gained back out. The blow knocked him back on the grass, wheezing, while Astrid strode over to him, also short of breath.

Astrid saw Hiccup flinch. She didn't really blame him, being punched while suffocating was probably some sort of traumatic experience. She wasn't planning on hitting him again though, instead she sat down next to him and pulled him into a hug, further restricting his breathing. After a moment she pushed herself back and punched his shoulder, a little more gently this time.

"What _wheeze_ was that?!" She nearly yelled at him,"You scared me half _wheeze_ to death!"

Hiccup's only reply was his labored breathing, so Astrid stood up. There was a thunderous crash and Astrid whipped her head around to see the roof of the house cave in. She glared back at Hiccup, pointing to the flaming structure behind her.

"Do you see that!? You would have been in there! You would have been dead!" She started toward him, half a mind to throttle him, but settled for kicking him really hard on his good foot.

"Ow!" Hiccup drew his knee up to his chest, wrapping his hands around the offended member. "I think," he began, but was interrupted by a fit of coughing. "I think you're sending mixed signals."

Astrid was undeterred. "What were you even doing in there? That building had been on fire for a good twenty minutes before I hauled your sorry behind out of there. What-"

"Technically, I think Toothless got us out." Hiccup interjected.

"That's beside the point! Answer my question! What were you doing in there?!" Astrid stopped ranting and stared at Hiccup's eyes for a moment before he suddenly found the shape of a grass blade utterly fascinating. He glanced up a second later and saw she was still looking daggers at him.

"Oh, you know," Hiccup started, suddenly very cool and collected, "Sometimes you've just got to throw pots at a wall, or smash something with an ax, or burn something down." His last words were a murmur as he found another piece of grass as interesting as the first.

"No, those are all things _I_ do. _You_ don't do anything like that unless you're trying to prove something, or…" Astrid trailed off and bent down to try and get a look at Hiccup's eyes. "or unless you're scared." Hiccup suddenly stood up and sauntered off towards a tree. Astrid followed him.

"You were scared!" She nearly shouted, a grin spreading across her face.

"Pfft!" Hiccup waved a hand in dismissal, "I was not. I-I was just…" he seemed lost for words.

"Then why is your dragon in a tree?"

Hiccup glanced up at the branches of the tree he was leaning against where he saw Toothless huddled on a limb with his tail curled around it for balance.

"Well, I—I," Astrid watched as he worked his jaw, but she was quickly losing patience. In one swift movement she spun him around and held his arm behind his back, pinning him to the tree.

"What. Were. You doing?" she hissed in his ear.

Either her hold on his arm was very painful or he just wanted to get it over with, because words came out of Hiccup's mouth almost faster than Astrid could hear them.

"Ok Astrid, but it was huge! I mean HUGE! Like, the size of a Gronkle!" Astrid released her hold on his arm and he turned back to face her, eyes wide.

"What was?" she asked. Was it a wolf? A wild cat? An overgrown, small, hostile dragon?

He rubbed his shoulder and mumbled a reply. Something that sounded like "Spire".

"A what?"

"Parasteatoda tepidariorum."

"Speak Norse, Hiccup. You're not talking to Fishlegs."

"A SPIDER OK?!" He turned from Astrid's gape and looked up at Toothless, still perched precariously on the limb. "TOOTHLESS! GET DOWN HERE." Hiccup yelled at the reptile over the gale of laughter that came from Astrid's direction. The dragon didn't move.

When Astrid recovered herself Hiccup was still standing at the foot of the tree with a face that looked as if it had been burned with dragon fire.

"A spider?!" she asked, gasping for breath.

"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup backed up from the tree so he could better yell profanities at the beast that steadfastly refused to offer assistance.

With Hiccup's back to her Astrid spied something in the grass. A maniacal glint came to her eye.

"I SEE HOW IT IS! SURE YOU'VE SAVED MY LIFE A FEW TIMES, BUT WHEN I REALLY NE-"

"Hey Hiccup."

"WH-AHH!" Hiccup began clawing at the tree bark in a frantic effort to climb it while Toothless issued a roar that caused a flock of Night Terrors nesting in a nearby tree to take flight.

"A spider? Like this one?" Astrid moved her open palm a little closer to Hiccup's face, which subsequently turned white as a Snow Wraith. The small spider which Astrid had found in the grass was little more than half an inch across. It scurried around the surface of her upturned hand, trying to find its way off. With a satisfied look at Hiccup's face- his eyes were twice their usual size- Astrid shooed the spider off of its perch and onto the ground a few feet away.

A blast shook the air and the humans covered their heads. Astrid looked over where the spider had dropped and saw the grass blackened and smoldering. Toothless lighted cautiously next to Hiccup.

"Oh sure, NOW you come." Hiccup rolled his eyes and then looked at Astrid. "You're not… you're not going to tell anyone about this, are you?"

Astrid raised an eyebrow.

"You are, aren't you."

"I don't know," Astrid folded her hands behind her back and paced around him. "What are you willing to pay?"

"Anything."

Astrid stopped in front of him and grabbed his shirt collar. "Promise me you'll never stay in a burning structure longer than absolutely necessary."

"But what if-"

"Oh ho! Think what Snotlout will be like when he finds out that the Pride of Berk is afraid of spi-"

"Ok! Alright!" Hiccup raised his hands in defeat.

Astrid grinned. "Say it."

Hiccup sighed, "I promise never to stay in a burning structure longer than absolutely necessary."

"Good!" Astrid released her grip on his shirt and stepped back. "Now just remember that." She began to walk away.

"Yes _milady_." Hiccup muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Astrid turned abruptly.

"Nothing!"

Astrid nodded her head and turned back around, a slow smile creeping over her face.

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 **A/N:** Did you like it? If you did, please review! If you didn't, please review! Let me know how I can improve. Thanks for reading!


	4. You and I

**A/N:** I own nothing except the thoughts in my head. This is most definitely one of my top five favorite scenes in HTTYD 2. It struck me how Valka's first word to Stoick when she sees him is "I", but his to her is "You". I shows how different their views are, and what matters most to them after they've been separated for twenty years. Please review!

-0o0-

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 _"I know what you're going to say, Stoick. How could I have done this? Stayed away all these years. And why didn't I come back to you? To our son? Well, what sign did I have that you could change? That_ anyone _on Berk could? I pleaded so many times to stop the fighting, to find another answer, but did any of you listen? I know I left you to raise Hiccup alone, but I thought he'd be better off without me, and I was wrong, I see that now. Oh, stop being so stoic, Stoick. Go on! Scream! Shout! Say something!"_

 _"You're as beautiful as the day I lost you."_

-0o0-0o0-0o0-0o0-0o0-0o0-

She knew he was here. The dragons had been spotted far away, and she had gone up herself to see who it was. She had hovered just above the clouds, waiting until the riders were close enough for her to identify them. She was not prepared for who she saw. There, just beneath the film of cloud, Stoick the Vast, defender of Berk, scourge of the dragons, was riding one of the very beasts he had sworn to kill and urging it on. Valka hadn't believed Hiccup when he said that Stoick had reformed. That was simply too good to be true. Yet there he was, his hair and beard touched with grey, and a little worse for the wear, but still the same strong man Valka had known all those years ago. She had gazed ahead of the riders and seen that they would soon find the Bewilderbeast's cave. Turning Cloudjumper she raced past them to the cave, shielded from view by the soft white clouds beneath her.

She decided not to tell Hiccup about his father coming, he would take the news with the same enthusiasm that he took everything, and Valka needed time. Time to think things out and plan very, very carefully for what she would say. Stoick would be furious, she was sure of it. His strongest emotion had always been anger, something that only Valka had been able to tame in the past. It had been twenty years, however, and any connection she had shared with him must have been severed long ago. But if he was going to be angry and leave her, she at least wanted to justify herself to him. She worked out what she would say carefully, and held her staff in readiness. Stoick had never struck her, but twenty years of solitude could do many things.

Valka heard the familiar _step, thud_ of a peg leg, and she turned to the entrance in time to see Gobber's open-mouthed astonishment. She heard voices further down the passage, _his_ voice, and Gobber backed out of the opening to say something to _him_. The entrance was filled by his strong figure, and Valka began to speak, prepared for anything.

From the first word that came out of her mouth, Valka was focused on justifying herself, pleading for something she didn't deserve or expect to get; his forgiveness. She knew that was out of the question, however, so she steeled herself for the proper response of anger and violence, building up walls against every kind of dart or weapon he could throw.

-0o0-0o0-0o0-0o0-

She was here! He removed his helmet in reverence of the Valkyrie before him, a perfect image of the woman who bore that name. She began to speak, and her voice was soft but troubled. He advanced toward her, and as he came closer, he was sure. This was no vision, no heaven-sent illusion; after all these years, she was here. His beloved wife, alive and well, as vibrant and lovely as ever she had been, perhaps more so. He was close now, close enough to see her beautiful sea-green eyes, now wide with worry. He couldn't form any words until he reached out and touched her face, the final evidence he needed to assure him. Then he knew what to say, what he had thought from the moment he had seen her as a young boy, to the second of their parting, to this wonderful instant he thought he would have to die to experience. And he spoke the truest words he had said in years.

-0o0-0o0-0o0-0o0-

All the walls that Valka had fortified around her heart crumbled. How could she have so misjudged him? Had the years really tainted her vision that much? What lies had she believed about him to justify her own irresponsible actions? She closed her eyes in shame and rested against the gentle hand that held her cheek.

She didn't deserve him. Every thought she had formed since she had seen him outside the cave had been of how to defend _herself_ , how to protect _her own_ selfish actions. When she spoke she pitted herself against him, rationalizing and trying to pin the blame on him. She had woven words and spoken rashly, never once thinking that she may have been wrong about him. He had seen only her, not the cruel words she was speaking, not the twenty years of loneliness she had made him endure, he saw her as she had been, and as she was, and there wasn't a difference to him. He spoke what he knew to be true.

Valka felt her face being lifted, and with tears behind her closed lids, she felt him kiss her; expressing all the love and kindness he had toward her. He backed away and Valka opened her eyes, staring in hope and disbelief at the man looking down at her. He smiled.


	5. New Beginning

**A/N:** Two updates in one month? I know, right? My muse must have had some caffeine or something. As always, I hope you like it and please review!

-0o0-

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Astrid nestled further down under the furs on the bed and moved backward, fully expecting to make contact with her husband's warm back. Instead, all she felt was a cool pocket of air on his side of the bed. She turned over and looked around in the dim morning light. It was almost dawn, she decided. Astrid sat up and rubbed her eyes, trying to clear out the bleariness.

"Hiccup?" she asked the room softly. Astrid climbed out of bed and shivered as her bare feet met the cold wooden floor boards. She grabbed one of Hiccup's warmest tunics and pulled it on over her night shift as she ventured out into the hallway. She made her way down the stairs, but not nearly as carefully as Hiccup would have liked her to "in her condition". She had fought against and alongside dragons though, so she wasn't going to be stopped by a flight of stairs just because her stomach was a little bit round.

Hiccup wasn't in the lower floor of the house either, so, slipping on a pair of boots, Astrid confiscated another one of Hiccup's thick woolen shirts and slipped out the front door.

The world seemed as if all its colors had been drained. The pale blue-grey of the early morning sky was filled with dark, brooding clouds that threatened one of the many summer hailstorms that were Berk's to enjoy. The ocean was equally foreboding, its icy black waters churning on the shore, and even the green summer grass seemed muted in the grey early morning light.

Astrid shivered again and puffed out a breath, watching as the faint bit of vapor was whisked away on the chill ocean breeze. She scanned the silent village and wondered where Hiccup might have gone. Deciding that the stables were a good place to look, Astrid headed toward them, hoping that Hiccup would be there so that they could return to the reasonably warm house.

When she got to the stables and didn't find him Astrid supposed that he had gone flying with Toothless, who was also missing. Then, however, Astrid remembered that Hiccup wouldn't go five miles from her "in her condition" when she was awake, much less when she was asleep. He wouldn't be far.

Astrid got to Stormfly's stall and the dragon chirruped, wondering what brought her human before the sun was in the sky.

"Come on girl," Astrid coaxed, opening the pen. "Let's go see what our boys are up to."

Ever since Hiccup had found out about the baby he hadn't let Astrid take any "risks". If it had been up to him, Astrid wouldn't have sat on the back of a dragon until well after the child was born. Thankfully however, Valka was a very understanding mother-in-law. If Astrid had gone the last four months since telling Hiccup without once flying with Stormfly, she would have gone absolutely batty. She had stayed in practice though (within reason of course, even Valka had rules), and now she skimmed over the tree tops with ease to get to her destination.

Astrid had known the little cove that was special to Hiccup and Toothless since her first flight with them. Now she guided Stormfly to land gently in a clearing a ways off from it and walked the rest of the distance. Hiccup would have a heart attack if he knew she had flown there. She came to the entrance and motioned for Stormfly to stay, ducking under the shield that was still wedged in between the two boulders, now rusted beyond all chance of removal. She looked around for a moment in the growing light before she saw the black mass huddled against the cliff wall. She didn't see Hiccup as she walked towards Toothless, but the dragon would know where he was.

Toothless appeared to be sleeping. He was curled up into a ball, breathing softly and a dim blue glow coming from his back. He raised his head and watched as Astrid approached, but he didn't meet her like he usually did. She came closer and placed a hand under his chin, scratching him in the place she knew he loved. The dragon closed his eyes and made a deep rumble in his chest, but it was nothing like the ecstatic response that usually accompanied the action. He lowered his head to Astrid's stomach and sniffed it before rubbing against it gently.

"Where's Hiccup, Toothless?" Astrid asked. The Night Fury only lay his head back down and puffed out a breath, closing his eyes. The dragon was behaving strangely, and Astrid almost walked back toward the entrance to the cove when a soft sound caught her ear. It wasn't a dragon sound, it was very, very human, and Astrid's heart broke when she heard it. She knelt down beside the dragon and placed a hand on his head, gently pushing it aside. Toothless understood and pulled his head away, drawing back his wing for Astrid to see.

Hiccup sat up suddenly and looked at Astrid with red-rimmed eyes.

"Toothless!" he said as he began to scrub his wet eyes with his hands and sleeve, only half his voice showing frustration with his friend. "You were supposed to tell me if anyone got close."

Seeing the tear tracks on Hiccup's face, Astrid immediately knew the significance of that particular day. She came closer to Hiccup and wrapped her arms around him quickly, bringing his head to her shoulder and kneeling beside him. His guard went down again and he hugged her around her waist, gently pulling her to sit sideways on his lap. She kissed his hair, tears welling up in her own eyes. Toothless rubbed against Hiccup one more time before leaving to give the humans some privacy.

"Two years!" Hiccup said between sobs. "He's been gone two years today. And it's my fault." The last sentence was a whisper, a fear that he had never dared tell anyone.

Astrid had always suspected that Hiccup felt that way, but hearing him say it set something off inside her. "How can you think that?!" she shoved his shoulders back so she could see his face. There was a fire in her eyes and tears ran down her cheeks. "It's not your fault, and it's not Toothless' fault, and it's not anybody else's fault!" she yelled at Hiccup's astonished face. "If there were anyone to blame, it would be me! I was the one who told Drago where you were! I was the one who made him attack the Alpha _and_ Berk! And I was the one who let him kill your father! And nearly kill you." Her voice sank from its previous volume and she was talking again. "So just stop it with thinking that you're the only one who carries around guilt. Because you're not. At least your guilt isn't well founded." Astrid stood up looked away from him, wrapping her own arms around herself where Hiccup's had been only a moment ago.

"Astrid, I… I never knew-"

"You never knew because we never talked about it," Astrid said softly, still turned away from him. "It was too painful for you, and I never pressed the issue because I didn't want to think about what might happen when you found out what I-" Astrid let out a shaky breath and her knees buckled. She was caught by Hiccup and they sank to the ground together, her arms involuntarily going around his neck as she choked back her sobs.

"Astrid, what did you think I was going to do?"

"I didn't know," Astrid spoke into his neck, "that's what scared me. I knew what I would have done, and I knew what I felt, and if I had ever seen you look at me the way I look at myself in the mirror, I- I would have killed myself."

Hiccup's hold around her tightened as if he were afraid to let her go. His voice rose a little bit and was filled with sorrow and anger, "Don't even say that!" He moved his hand down and felt the small bulge of her abdomen. "Don't ever say that," he whispered. They sat in stillness for a moment, both thinking their own thoughts. Hiccup finally broke the silence

"'Men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with,'" there was a pause. "I think I understand now." he said quietly, "I thought it was my fault, and you thought it was yours, but really, there was nothing you or I could have done to prevent anything Drago did." Astrid settled more completely into Hiccup's embrace so that he was cradling her. "He wasn't behaving rationally, so we couldn't have rationalized with him. Our only responsibility was to protect the people under our care, which we did to the best of our abilities. It's not your fault or mine that he killed –," Hiccup took a breath, "people. Drago choose to do evil, and _he_ will answer for what he did, not us." Hiccup lifted Astrid's face and looked deep into her eyes. "I have _never_ blamed you for anything that happened the summer Drago came, and I never will."

Tears pricked behind Astrid's lids as she repeated his promise with equal honesty, "I have never blamed you for anything that happened when Drago came, and I never will."

Hiccup's face shone as if she had given him the world, and he kissed her. When they separated Hiccup looked down at Astrid's stomach where his hand still rested.

"Do you think I'll be a good father?" Hiccup turned to Astrid and searched her face for her answer.

She smiled and put a hand to his cheek, "You will be the best father in the world."

"I can't be the best father," he sighed. "He's not here anymore." Hiccup leaned down to press his lips to Astrid's belly and she kissed his head, running her hands through his hair.

"What do you say to a new beginning?" Astrid asked and Hiccup raised his head. "No guilt from the past, no ghosts, just memories. We can start new right here, just the three of us."

Hiccup smiled, "I'd like that." He kissed her again under the bright morning sky, the grim clouds of early dawn now painted joyful hues of orange, pink, and gold. It was the perfect beginning.


	6. Silences

**A/N:** Hey guys! Again, not dead. Sorry for the delay, if you've read my things before and payed attention to the author's notes, you'll know about the unreliability of my muse. But, on to the story! This one-shot (I think it still counts as that) is both longer, and a little heavier than most of the other stuff I've done, but I think it has value. Hiccup generally gets all the whump attention, but Drago's attack wiped out half of Berk, so Astrid most likely lost people too! And especially since we never really see her emotional side, (and believe me, all girls have one) I felt like this needed to be explored. I hope you enjoy this! (Really though, please review, you have no idea how it brightens my day.)

* * *

Astrid Hofferson did _not_ cry. Crying showed weakness and helplessness, two things that no person in his right mind would ever have called Astrid Hofferson. But as she watched the moonlight dance across the water, she certainly felt like it.

She hadn't felt that way recently, maybe because she hadn't had time to feel anything recently. The Island of Berk had been left in shambles since Drago's attack a month before, and the days had been filled with clearing rubble, rebuilding homes, and simply getting things back in order; the monotony of it only broken once or twice by dragon races to keep up morale. But now, as the island looked more and more put together, and more and more of the ice was removed or melted away, there was time to think. There was time to notice the splintered houses that had not been fixed, and probably never would be since no one was coming home to them. There was time to notice how few children there were laughing and playing in the streets, and how many shops and booths were closed up, looking forlorn in their vacancy.

From the first day, Hiccup had taken control. He had turned the Great Hall, which was (miraculously) still intact, into a temporary shelter for villagers whose homes had been destroyed, and he had set the very old and very young to work making food for the steady flow of workers who came in and out in shifts. Another thing he had done was organize all the able-bodied villagers into working groups. They rotated in shifts between working and eating and sleeping. It was as he began to divide the people into groups that they realized just how many were missing. Name after name was called with no answer, and as the process went on, a grim silence settled over the village. By the time things were organized, everyone was ready to throw themselves into work so they could try and forget the deafening silence.

The one silence Astrid couldn't forget, and the one she was sure she would _never_ forget, was the silence that fell when her parents' names were called. She had been busy with organizing the villagers into lines, trying to shut out the sound of Hiccup's voice calling out names from the village registry. True, there would be strings of five or six names where each was answered with a somber "Here," but all too often the calls were met with nothing but eerie stillness.

"Hofferson, Erick." Suddenly Astrid's ears were alert, and she stiffened. She turned around, searching the crowd for any sign of answer. No one even moved. Hiccup paused a half-beat longer than he had with the other names, but pressed on.

"Hofferson, Ingrid." Astrid closed her eyes for a moment as the silence engulfed her, but then went back to what she was doing and waited for the silence to sink in. She knew Hiccup's eyes were on her as she continued her task, but she couldn't bear to look at him. She expected to feel pain like a knife, but, instead, it was as if a chasm had opened quietly in her heart and swallowed everything inside. She felt empty. Astrid went on with her work, everybody did, and soon she found that if she worked long enough, and if she could get tired enough, she could stop thinking about the void in her heart. That helped it not hurt so much, or she supposed it would have if she had felt anything.

Always at the front of the working force was Hiccup. Whether he was training dragons or clearing rubble, every day he worked two shifts straight before getting a meal and then stumbling towards a cot to sleep for a few short hours. If others hadn't insisted that he rest periodically, he probably would have worked himself to death, and Astrid knew that sometimes he wished he could. But every day she was right there with him, and he was with her. They were each other's silent support. They worked side by side and looked out for each other; he made sure she ate, she made sure he didn't get stuck in his own dark thoughts, and at the end of the day they fell exhausted onto cots right next to each other and enjoyed deep, dreamless slumber. All through the days there was one thing after another to keep Astrid from thinking about the emptiness inside her, and she always found solace in the blind unconsciousness that gave her escape, but her sleep hadn't been dreamless lately.

As work was winding down, and things began to be more put together, Astrid found it more difficult to fall to sleep. Every night when she came in she would eat and go straight to her bed, expecting to be asleep in minutes, but as she was less and less exhausted, she discovered that it was harder and harder to go to sleep. And when she finally did get to sleep, her dreams were dark.

-0o0-

 _"Hello?" she called out, only half expecting a reply. The night was cloudless, but she couldn't see the moon or stars. Everything was pitch black. She took a tentative step forward, unable to see where her foot would land. She stumbled along like this for what seemed like hours, with each step getting more desperate and less worried about where her feet would go. She started running. She didn't know where she was going, she just had to find something,_ anything _. As she went on her lungs began to burn and soon she was forced to stop, crumpling to the ground in a heap, gasping for air. She felt suffocated. There was no light, and no noise except for her own labored breathing echoing in her ears. She had to keep moving. Her only hope of finding something was if she kept going. She began crawling forward on her hands and knees, still weak from her previous efforts. After an eternity, she saw something. Light! She managed to get to her feet and run unsteadily towards the orange glow that flickered in the distance. It grew stronger, and soon she had to shield her eyes, so long accustomed to dark, with her hand. She came to the edge of a cliff and forced herself to uncover her eyes. She blinked against the light, noticing as she did that everything was still silent. As her eyes adjusted painfully to brightness around her, she made out shapes in the valley below her. Human shapes. Dragon shapes. All motionless. The light was coming from a hundred fires that were set around them, each of them blazing with all their fury, but every one silent as the forms they guarded. She fell to her knees, and the silence penetrated to her very core._

 _She was roused from her stupor by a cold blade being placed to her cheek. She turned around slowly, distancing herself from the metal as she did. Who was there to threaten her? Everyone was dead._

 _Drago._

 _He had done all this! He stood there over her, sneering at her horrified expression. The sneer turned into a smirk, and she saw the victory in his eyes. He didn't say anything, but with his sword he pointed at her chest, and then significantly at the silent forms in the valley below. At first she thought he was going to kill her, but her horror increased as she understood his meaning._

 _"No!" she shouted, and what she had meant to echo out in defiance was turned into a muffled plea. "It wasn't me! It was you!"_

 _His smirk turned into something more sinister, and he nodded his head, confirming a fear she didn't know she had. She started to protest again, but he reached down and grabbed her face, forcing her to look at the devastation below. She looked down at the silent figures and faces of the people she loved, Hiccup and Toothless, Stoick, Valka too, and, in the very heart of the destruction, lay her mother and father._

 _They were all dead because of her. The silence in her heart was filled with something now, something more horrible than the emptiness: guilt. Guilt and despair. Guilt so loud that it hurt her ears, pounding on the inside of her skull, and despair so heavy that it pushed her to the ground, or would have had Drago not been grasping her face in his death-grip. His hand shifted from her face to her neck, and she realized vaguely that he was choking her. It was not until the black started to cloud the edges of her vision that she began to struggle. The light! She needed the light! It was her one last hope. She tried to pry his fingers off her neck, but her fight was useless. He was too strong. The blackness obscured the light, and right as she faded out of consciousness she finally heard someone speak. She thought it was Drago, but it sounded more impersonal, and, if it were possible, even more evil than he was. It sounded like Guilt._

 _"You belong to me now."_

-0o0-

Astrid launched into a sitting position, gasping for breath. She had had nightmares recently, but none of them had been quite as bad as this one. She tried to steady her breathing as she looked around, fixing her eyes on the light of the fire in the center of the hall, and listening intently to the sounds of steady breathing coming from various parts of the room. Light and sound were all around her. She was alive and they were alive. Astrid's breathing hitched. Not all of them were alive. A strange lump formed in her throat, and she decided she needed some fresh air.

As she turned to her right to get her boots, Astrid saw Hiccup had woken up and was propped up on his elbow.

"Bad dream?" he asked in a whisper. Part of Astrid was tempted to nod and curl up in his arms like a frightened child, but her independent streak won out.

"It's ok," she said in lieu of an answer. "Go back to sleep." He looked unconvinced, but didn't get up to follow her when she opened the tall door of the Great Hall and went out.

So here she was, sitting in the wet grass in the middle of the night, watching the moonlight play on the rippling waves down below. The wind was cold and dry, making her eyes water and her nose run. She scrubbed a hand across her face, unable to account for the lump in her throat as the wind continued to play with her eyes and nose. She wasn't crying, that much was certain. Astrid Hofferson did NOT cry. Crying showed weakness and helplessness, and if… Her thoughts left off of her mantra and moved on in a different strain. …and if there were two things she felt right now, they would be weakness and helplessness.

Astrid heard someone coming towards her and rubbed her hands across her eyes quickly before putting a hand near the knife in her boot. She was about to spring up when someone dropped a blanket lightly around her shoulders. She relaxed: Hiccup. He sat down next to her, but Astrid didn't look at him.

"I have nightmares too," he stated simply. When she didn't make any answer he went on. "Mostly they're about when my dad died. Sometimes I have to sit there and watch, or sometimes I almost save him, but no matter what, there's nothing I can do. That's the worst part. Not the look in his eyes as he pushes me out of the way, or Drago's satisfaction, it's always just that sick feeling of helplessness in my stomach."

Out of the corner of her eye Astrid saw him look at her, expecting her to say something or do something, anything to show that she had heard him.

"Astrid…" he said softly, consolingly, and reached over to brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "They were your parents." And image flashed across Astrid's mind: silent flames engulfing the motionless bodies of her mother and father.

 _They were my parents and it's my fault they're dead._ A tear escaped her eye. Weakness, that was what she felt. Two more tears slid down her cheeks. And helpless was what she was. That brought more tears to her eyes, and before she knew it, she was sobbing. Hiccup pulled her towards him until her head and shoulders rested in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her protectively and leaned over her as if he were shielding her. She could picture the concern on his face. He had never seen her cry. Astrid Hofferson did _not_ cry.

As Hiccup held her Astrid started sobbing more violently, trying to muffle the sound by burying her face in the blanket he had put around her. He smoothed the hair from her face and didn't say anything, simply being something solid as the life that Astrid had known disintegrated. She didn't know exactly when it happened, but at some point, the chasm that the silence had carved in her heart tore open further, and, like out of Pandora's Box, all the pain that she hadn't felt flew out, demanding that she feel it.

Her parents were gone. She finally felt the loneliness and sadness of it. She finally felt the sorrow of having no home to go to, no mother to kiss or hug or talk to, no father to support and protect and teach her. She recalled each and every name that had been answered with silence a month before, and she grieved for them. She grieved for the lives that hadn't been finished, and the people who were left behind. She grieved for the mothers and fathers and husbands and wives that were left with their hearts torn in two, and for the children. The children who wouldn't have parents to teach them how to grow up just as they needed it most, and the children who wouldn't have parents to hold them when a nightmare woke them up, or comfort them when their hearts were sad, but most of all, she wept for the children who were too young to understand why their parents wouldn't be coming home, and who would grow up never to know a mother's embrace or a father's loving discipline.

All the time that Astrid wept, Hiccup held her, comforting her as best he knew how. Her life would never be the same, and though he had tasted a part of this pain that she was going through, he didn't think his father's death had become real to him yet, and he knew that a day would come for him where everything he hadn't felt would search him out and find him. Still, it hadn't found him yet, but it had found Astrid. As he held Astrid, sobs still wracking her frame, he thought about every way that she had helped him from the very beginning. She had been the first one to believe him, the first one to put any sort of faith in him, even if it had been unwilling at first. All through the years she had been right there with him. Every trial and every joy that he had experienced, she had as well. She had trained beside him, worked beside him, laughed beside him, and stood beside him, and now she was letting him see a part of herself that he was very sure no one had seen since she was a very small child. It wasn't just the things that she did for him that mattered either, it was the things that, even with her fiercely independent ways, she let him do for her. He loved her, and he wanted to spend every day of the rest of his life standing right beside her.

Time passed, and Astrid's sobs gradually slowed to a stop. She realized that, while she still felt the weight of the loss, her tears had washed over it and robbed it of most of its bitterness. It still hurt, but it no longer felt poisonous. Contrary to what her usual behavior would have been, Astrid stayed in Hiccup's embrace and had no inclination to move. He was comforting and safe, and he loved her. Why would she want to be anywhere else? A warm, understanding silence lay over them, broken only by the sound of the waves below. Something dawned on Hiccup, and he wondered why he hadn't thought of it before. Under normal circumstances he would never have dreamed of saying anything of this sort, but there was such a peace at the moment, that he couldn't help but say it. He leaned down and smoothed the hair out of her eyes, whispering in her ear as he did.

"Marry me?"

Astrid felt that she should be surprised, but she wasn't. The answer was obvious, so she simply nodded her head and gave her reply in a croaky, tear-tinted voice.

"Sure."

Hiccup smiled and kissed her cheek, then scooped her up, blanket and all.

"Good," he said cheerfully, making his way back toward the Great Hall with Astrid in his arms. "I don't know what I would have done if you said no." Astrid giggled, the sorrow and heavy emotions from just a few minutes ago already a distant memory. They entered the Hall and Hiccup set Astrid down on her cot. He pulled off her boots, tucking the blankets around her like she was a small child, and kissed her forehead. He started to move towards his own cot, but Astrid freed her arm from the blanket and caught his wrist. He turned back towards her, searching her face in the dim glow of the fire.

Astrid had never been very good with words, and while she felt that she could have said something a few minutes ago, that spell had been broken, and she was just plain Astrid again, so she did something that was very like herself. She pulled him towards her and kissed him, smiled a very eloquent smile, and then turned over to go to sleep. A few seconds later she heard the sound of a cot being scooted across the floor and felt Hiccup lay down with his back to hers. She smiled, welcoming the warm, sure feeling of having him at her back, and after a few minutes of silence drifted off into quiet sleep.


End file.
